First prize!

Aoife Josephine van der Linden was born on 22 November 2012 at 0.14 AM.

An early bird, you could say, even though she arrived 6 days after her due date.

Obviously, Jos and myself are extremely happy with the arrival of our second little girl - Jos will turn grey a bit quicker than he'd like and I think our savings are in danger because the girls may want to go shopping a bit more often than we'd like... well, we'll see what the future brings :)

For the moment, we're just proud, as you can see from these first pictures taken now two weeks ago.

Aoife was allowed to come home with us after the first night at the hospital as there were no complications at her birth. This was absolutely fantastic, because when Sophia was born I had to stay at the hospital for two nights.

Sophia was at the crèche when we got home, but when she arrived home after her day at the crèche, she met her little sister for the first time - and she was absolutely thrilled. Since that first meeting; she's been very protective of Aoife and every time Aoife cries, Sophia alerts us that we have to go over to her and 'do something'.

At the moment, Aoife looks a lot like Sophia when she was a newborn; the only main difference being her cheeks that are round and much fuller than Sophia's.

Thanks everyone for your support and encouragement before this little girl was born and thanks for all the well wishes we have received - even though the first weeks are tiring, it's the best time of our lives as we're really enjoying getting to know this new little girl!

The waiting game - part 3

Sunday 18 November 2012 - T +/+ 2

Well to be very honest, I hadn't expected to be writing part 3 to this series... but here we are on Sunday 18 November 2012. Expectations put aside - we're now playing the waiting game in extra time!

So, this morning it was time for a brief photo shoot featuring bump and little Miss Sophia... She is getting excited now.

In the mean time, I'm making some progress with my December shopping/present making; have taught Sophia how to bake Kruidnootjes and have read all the papers back to front - and hope I will get enough sleep to cover the next (potential) 2 years of broken nights. Jos is driving me mad repeating his question: "Do I have to start the car yet?", but is the best partner I could wish for in this boat.

Who knows whether this series will be continued or whether I can start writing under a new subject header in the next week or so...

The waiting game - part 2

Monday 12 November: T -/- 4

If I'm singing along to La Roux' Bulletproof something must be seriously wrong with me - I hate that song - but today I'm in such a good mood that even that song is not putting me off!

Last Saturday I seriously thought baby was on its way out - but then all went quiet again and now I'm extremely chilled out. Last week saw great progress to a number of my little projects - call it nesting if you want - and this week will be very much the same until...

To be continued...

The waiting game - part 1

Sunday 4 November 2012: T -/- 12

From the moment you hold that positive Clear Blue test in your hands up to the moment the baby is about to be born, one is 'expecting' or just 'waiting'. So here I am at 38+ weeks, waiting for the first signs of a baby that wants to get out into the world and I can tell you one thing: I really miss the ignorance of 2.5 years ago when I was in the same boat, awaiting Sophia's arrival! Not that I'm scared of the actual delivery, no. It's more that I cannot deal with the unpredictability of this baby's arrival; it could be any time between now and 4 weeks from now.. During the day I'm absolutely fine, tired maybe and not as active as I'd like to be, but just plodding on doing things I like to do in preparation for this new baby's arrival. But once I'm closing my eyes at night, my subconscious is taking me on a mad rollercoaster ride instead of allowing me to sleep quietly- the sleep I need so much!
I know I'm ready, but my subconscious wants to jeopardise that feeling. I think the hormones are largely to blame for this... I won't say: go away you all, as I'll need some of these hormones to survive it all - it's all part of the waiting game, sigh...
To be continued...

November 2012

 What??!

Yes indeed!

Expected November 2012

Ice skating in the Netherlands

Friday 3 February 2012
A trip on my own... Snow in the Netherlands resulted in a cancelled afternoon flight from Dublin to Amsterdam. Thank God I could reschedule to a later flight and after a long delay - great company, a nice pint of Guinness and a good book made this delay bearable - I made it to Schiphol airport where dad, who had braved icy roads, was waiting for me and took me to my home away from home: Bodegraven. Temperatures dropped to -18 degrees Celsius overnight and when sleeping, the mist was getting thicker.
Waking up the next morning, this is what I saw from my bedroom window:
All excited, I quickly got dressed and ran out of the house with my camera to capture the most fairytale like winter scape I had ever seen...


Impressed by the gorgeous snow and ice crystals that had grown on literally everything - and the serenity of the crisp early Saturday morning, breakfast tasted wonderfully well. After that, it was just a matter of getting the backpack ready with ice skates etc. and I made my way to the outskirts of Bodegraven to explore the ice conditions.






A layer of snow made it difficult to view what the ice was like; but in general; a thick black ice floor covered the canal and I it was truly magnificent to skate under these fantastic conditions. I captured the following when making my way to a small community called 'Tempel' in the Dutch countryside.




My parents enjoyed a walk across the frozen ditches and meadows while I was skating - it was one of those days that you will just never forget!

I wasn't in the Netherlands just to enjoy the winter weather. The main goal was to see my family and in particular to see my new niece Jade Amélie for the first time.

Before travelling back to Dublin on Sunday afternoon, I decided to have another go on the ice early Sunday morning. Here are just a few pictures of the 'Meije', a rural area not too far south of Amsterdam:












With a big smile, I got on the plane back to Dublin. This was something I hadn't done in years and it's like cycling... once you learn it, you won't forget!
A lovely blister at the back of my ankle is the only physical leftover of last weekend ice skating - after all it isn't something you do every day. I was craving a lovely sleep after all this exercise, but before I dozed off in my comfy seat by the window, I got a beautiful view of snowy Holland from above:

A little bit of winter

I'm very sorry about the fact that this winter's severe weather forecast is not living up to its expectation... So, I have to be happy with 'some' wintry weather, so enjoy these pictures as I don't expect many further wintry pictures from Ireland!

We were driving further into Wicklow this morning, planning to do a walk at Trooperstown hill. However, when passing one of the first gaps, we noticed the white hill tops and I got excited.... lets go up there! So that's exactly what we did; we drove past Glendalough, up the Wicklow Gap, parked the car and started our walk towards the Camaderry Water reservoir. A simple enough walk on the tarmac and a perfect opportunity for Sophia to 'meet the snow'.

Like an organ these bogside icycles

Little Miss S was certainly not planning to walk on the tarmac... nope... in the snow!

Time for a sandwich - a Nutella sandwich obviously!

Little walker in a little snow...
When she's a bigger walker, we'll take her up that big mountain in the distance - the Lug

Brilliant - she has no fear - firm (first) steps in the snow!

Driving home and looking back, the winter seemed far away again - despite the snowflake showing on the car's thermometer.
But there's nothing like the cracking sound of snow under your boots!

Next weekend I hope to have the pleasure to stand and ice skate on Dutch natural ice... If that all works out, I'll certainly post some pictures on this blog!